It is known that in a motor vehicle, components are required which must absorb or dissipate high loads, such as weight, but also forces acting from the outside. Primarily this concerns the body of the vehicle and in general all supporting parts of the vehicle.
To produce a vehicle body, it is known to use profiles in a so-called space-frame construction method. The connection of such profiles of a space-frame body to each other, and the connection of further force-transferring components to these space-frame profiles, impose high requirements for the quality of the connection but nonetheless should be able to be produced economically.
A connecting element of a supporting frame for connection of cross members is known for example from European Patent Publication No. EP 1 130 275 A1.
German Patent Publication No. DE 10 2006 044 799 A1 discloses a body module for a motor vehicle, in particular a car, with a plurality of mutually connected planar elements and carrier profiles, the supporting ends of which must be inserted in receiving openings of further carrier profiles adjoining the body module.